like me, for example.”The CEO of Index on Censorship, Jodie Ginsberg, said people should be able to live their lives without fearing discrimination.“This is another worrying example of the way in which governments are using social media applications to spy on the activities of citizens and then punish them,” she said.

Two years ago, 29-year-old Sameh Saleh, a technology entrepreneur from Cairo, realised that a close relative of his, Amira, was suffering.

and gay citizens “have been convicted for breaching laws on public decency,” advice from Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office states.

Officials clamping down on what it considers to be breaches of morality have in some cases resulted in the arrest and torture of those suspected of engaging in homosexual activity, who face allegations of immorality or blasphemy.

The claims come in the same month that seven men were detained and given forensic anal examinations for allegedly “inciting debauchery”, after a video emerged online showing the men at a same-sex wedding on a Nile riverboat. They were arrested on 6 September with the government announcing that the broadcasting of the footage – it having been uploaded to You Tube – violated “public decency” and was described as a “devilish shameless party”. Human Rights Watch called for the release of the men and censured the move as an “assault on fundamental human rights [which reflects] the Egyptian government’s growing disdain for the rule of law.”A study by the Pew Research Centre earlier this year displayed global attitudes on morality – finding that 95 per cent of Egyptians believe homosexuality to be unacceptable.

Travel guides also warn LGBT tourists of the dangers of being detained.One underground campaigner, known as Samia A, is quoted in the piece as saying: “Since October 2013, there has been a real manhunt for gay people in Egypt.“The police aren’t just targeting well-known gay hangouts, they are increasingly raiding homes when they think there is an LGBT party going on.“I think the new intensity of this repression is tied to the political situation in Egypt.Since President [Abdel Fattah el-Sisi] came to power, he has wanted to show Egyptians that he is as conservative as the ousted Muslim Brotherhood.” Samia said that the support group offers help to an LGBT person when they're arrested and contacts lawyers who’d be able to help.“We also tell [our members] to be careful, to not give out personal information online and to avoid any applications that use geolocalisation like Grindr, Hornit, Scruff, Gay Dating, etc,” Samia added.According to mobile-dating expert, Julie Spira, their impact has been “quite simply, enormous,” particularly among millenials.In 2016, a Pew survey found that more than a third of young Americans now look for love through their phone.Her father has met with around 40 young men over the years who have visited Amira’s family home to discuss marrying her, but so far, nothing has come of it. “I never have enough time to get to know them.” Under her father’s strict rules, she is able to have no more than two meetings with a potential suitor, all in the company of her family, and asked to make a decision shortly after. In Egypt, where life revolves around marriage, premarital sex remains fiercely taboo and the word for an unmarried woman, is a malicious insult – it’s the reason why, for this story, Amira is using a fake name.Yet, despite this, Saleh noticed many of his friends and relatives unable to tie the knot in recent years.Slightly younger than him, she was on the lookout for a husband, but despite spending two years searching for a suitor, she’d had no luck.Good-looking from a respectable family, and a qualified medical doctor, she should have had no problem finding a fiancé.Saleh thinks that, with 141 million smartphone users, of whom 72 percent are under 34, the region’s potential has been overlooked.Since first appearing in 2004, apps that provide a simple platform for potential couples to meet have become a mainstay of Western dating culture.